Research Archives - Page 25 of 40 - Fines and Fees Justice Center

Paying for Jail: How County Jails Extract Wealth from New York Communities

This report examines the burdensome costs of phone calls, commissary, and disciplinary tickets assessed by New York jails, specifically those outside of New York City.

Driving on Empty: Florida’s Counterproductive and Costly Driver’s License Suspension Practices

Driving on Empty shows how driver’s license suspension for nonpayment in Florida detracts from public safety, and outlines the racial and economic disparities perpetuated by this practice.

Taxation by Citation? Exploring Local Governments’ Revenue Motive for Traffic Fines

In 1977 California counties received 74 percent of their own-source general funds from property tax, but after Proposition 13, counties’ property tax decreased by over 50 percent. Since the passage …

The Steep Costs of Criminal Justice Fees and Fines, A Fiscal Analysis of Three States and Ten Counties

This Brennan Center research report analyzes the numerous disadvantages of the current criminal justice fine and fee systems of ten counties in Texas, Florida, and New Mexico.

Costs of Injustice: How Criminal System Fees Are Hurting Los Angeles County Families

This report shares the life experiences of Los Angeles County residents to illustrate how criminal justice fines and fees assessed by the County can be overly burdensome and punitive.

Work, Pay, or Go to Jail: Court-Ordered Community Service In Los Angeles

This report provides the findings from the first in-depth study of a large-scale court-ordered community service system in modern-day America. The authors examined the experiences of about 5,000 people who were ordered to perform community service by the Los Angeles Superior Court between 2013 and 2014.

The Price of Taxation By Citation: Case Studies of Three Georgia Cities The Rely Heavily on Fines and Fees

The concept of taxation by citation and its subsequent harms are dissected and analyzed in this Institute for Justice report. Through the profiling of three Georgia cities–Morrow, Riverdale, and Clarkston–the authors use traffic and ordinance violation data to suggest that these towns’ use of code enforcement power is geared towards revenue generation rather than public safety.

Fees, Fines and Fairness: How Monetary Charges Drive Inequity in New York City’s Criminal Justice System

The State of New York and its localities impose financial obligations at each stage of involvement with the justice system, from pre-trial to post-incarceration. Failure to pay can lead to …

Proportionate Financial Sanctions: Policy Prescriptions for Judicial Reform

In this report, the Criminal Justice Policy Program (CJPP) at Harvard Law School proposes a framework where courts would impose means-adjusted fines as a proportionate sentence for an offense. The authors assert that by adopting the proposed recommendations, courts can ease or prevent the worst harms that excessive financial sanctions create for poor people without waiting for legislative reforms.

Addicted to Fines: Small towns in much of the country are dangerously dependent on punitive fines and fees

This GOVERNING report presents the findings of a nationwide analysis of several jurisdictions' fine and fee revenue rates and how much of this funding source supports general budgets.